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Author
Topic: Atripla and a false positive (Read 2521 times)

I don't smoke marijuana, weed, grass, or whatever you choose to call it. I never even liked the stuff. My drug of choice when I was a user was something more intense than that. anyway, I am on Atripla for my therapy and only Atripla. I had to take a pre-employment drug screen at some backwards Indian reservation in very upstate New York. They do not send the test to a lab. They have the donor urinate in a cup and peel off a sticker and whala, the winner is!!!!!! So I did it..... He then asked me, "do you smoke marijuanna?" I said, "not in about 20 years." He disappeared and then came back and had me speak with his supervisor who adamantly claimed that there is nothing that can cause a false positive, blah, blah, blah. They explained to me that I was no longer elgible to be employed at the reservation. I said, "ok, have a nice day." The minute I got home, I googled, "hiv meds, false THC positive." It came up, Atripla and or sustiva. If those Indians don't realize that certain medicines can cause false positive, they shouldn't be administering the test. I then called and spoke to someone in the Human Resources office. I asked her, "why don't they ask what medications we are taking." She says, "it's illegal." Talk about backwards!!! So I am back to looking for work.

I don't smoke marijuana, weed, grass, or whatever you choose to call it. I never even liked the stuff. My drug of choice when I was a user was something more intense than that. anyway, I am on Atripla for my therapy and only Atripla. I had to take a pre-employment drug screen at some backwards Indian reservation in very upstate New York. They do not send the test to a lab. They have the donor urinate in a cup and peel off a sticker and whala, the winner is!!!!!! So I did it..... He then asked me, "do you smoke marijuanna?" I said, "not in about 20 years." He disappeared and then came back and had me speak with his supervisor who adamantly claimed that there is nothing that can cause a false positive, blah, blah, blah. They explained to me that I was no longer elgible to be employed at the reservation. I said, "ok, have a nice day." The minute I got home, I googled, "hiv meds, false THC positive." It came up, Atripla and or sustiva. If those Indians don't realize that certain medicines can cause false positive, they shouldn't be administering the test. I then called and spoke to someone in the Human Resources office. I asked her, "why don't they ask what medications we are taking." She says, "it's illegal." Talk about backwards!!! So I am back to looking for work.

It certainly is not. In fact most places if you're taking a drug screen they ask you to list the medications you're taking in case it throws a false positive. They should run a secondary drug screen that is more expensive to separate marijuana from Atripla but it also means disclosing to your employer that you have HIV. So depends on what you wanna do.

In house drug testing sucks in this regard. Judging on your descriptions, there's no big loss here. During your continued job search if you come across a drug test that is sent to a lab you can list your medicines confidentially and the lab should know which test to perform

I don't smoke marijuana, weed, grass, or whatever you choose to call it. I never even liked the stuff. My drug of choice when I was a user was something more intense than that. anyway, I am on Atripla for my therapy and only Atripla. I had to take a pre-employment drug screen at some backwards Indian reservation in very upstate New York. They do not send the test to a lab. They have the donor urinate in a cup and peel off a sticker and whala, the winner is!!!!!! So I did it..... He then asked me, "do you smoke marijuanna?" I said, "not in about 20 years." He disappeared and then came back and had me speak with his supervisor who adamantly claimed that there is nothing that can cause a false positive, blah, blah, blah. They explained to me that I was no longer elgible to be employed at the reservation. I said, "ok, have a nice day." The minute I got home, I googled, "hiv meds, false THC positive." It came up, Atripla and or sustiva. If those Indians don't realize that certain medicines can cause false positive, they shouldn't be administering the test. I then called and spoke to someone in the Human Resources office. I asked her, "why don't they ask what medications we are taking." She says, "it's illegal." Talk about backwards!!! So I am back to looking for work.

I know what you're going through, I do not use marijuana either, and I was worried about the same thing coming up for me, since I recently graduated college and am trying to find a job in this bad economy..I finally got my doctor to write me a simple, brief signed note stating that I am taking a medication that may cause a false positive on a drug test for THC..She did not mention what the drug was, but she said she had done it for several other patients, just in case. I certainly feel more confident facing drug tests with her note now..If employers allow outside labs to do their drug tests, you probably wouldn't have to worry anyway, because they would keep it all confidential, but I would ask your doctor to write you a note stating that you are on a med which can cause a false poz on some drug tests, it couldn't hurt....It's just better, particularly if you come up against some potentially ignorant employers, to have as many of your bases covered as possible...Good luck & best wishes!